“If you please, my lady, Thomas Bradly would be glad to speak with you for a few minutes, if you could oblige him.”
“Thomas Bradly?” asked Lady Morville of the footman who brought the message; “is he one of our own people?”
“No, my lady; but he says you’ll know who he is if I mention that Jane Bradly is his sister.”
“Dear me! Yes, to be sure. Take him into the housekeeper’s room, and tell him I will be with him in a few minutes.”
“Well, Thomas,” said her ladyship, holding out her hand to him as she entered the room, “I’m very glad to see you. I needn’t ask if you are well.”
“Thank your ladyship, I’m very well; and I hope you’re the same, and Sir Lionel too.”
“Thank you. Sir Lionel is not so well just now; he has had a good deal to worry him lately. But how are all your family? We miss you still from church very much, and from the Lord’s table.—And poor Jane?”
“Well, my lady, poor Jane’s been poor Jane indeed for a long time, but she’s rich Jane now.”
“You don’t mean to say, Thomas—!” exclaimed the other in a distressed tone.
“Oh no!” interrupted Bradly; “Jane’s not left yet for the better land, though she’s walking steadily along the road to it. But the Lord has been very gracious to her, in bringing her light in her darkness. She wants for nothing now, except a kind message from your ladyship, which I hope to carry back with me.”